Contribution of women in finance is integral

The above Chinese proverb sums ups beautifully and very powerfully the need to involve women in every sphere of life. If we want miracles, if we want holistic development of the populace and citizens in general, if we want transformation and not 'a few degrees of change', women have to be equal partners in everything.

More specifically, on women workforce in India, the data is not very encouraging. According to a World Bank report, as opposed to 79% of men, only 27% of Indian women were a part of the workforce in 2017. The female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) in India declined from 34.8% to 27% in the two decades before 2013. On the other hand, unpaid work done by women across the globe amounts to a staggering $10 trillion a year, which is 43 times the annual turnover of the world's biggest company Apple, an Oxfam study released in January 2019 said. In India, the unpaid work done by women looking after their homes and children is worth 3.1% of the country's GDP. In this context, the following quote by Virginia Woolf says so much in few words, "Money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for"

As is said, "the strength of a chain is derived from it's weakest link". In a narrower frame, extending this endeavour of enrolling women's participation in personal finance would amount to the following pointers.

Finance minister of the family: Women 'run' the house and given that money is one of the highest forms of energy, the most practical tool for getting things moving. They can help money address today's needs/responsibilities and create more for tomorrow's goals. Women, when given 360 degrees view of the inflows, the outflows, the current assets and future goals (essential as well as avoidable), can juggle various pieces of this mosaic of information to draw a big and meaningful picture for the entire family.

Budget strings in her hand: If you want the needs of the family to be met efficiently without going overboard on spending money, the best way is to hand over the reins of inflows to the better half of the family (mothers and wives). From experience I know, that a good homemaker (may not be too different for working women) most often is a prudent spender. Involving and engaging the women folk in financial planning ends up making the budgeting process more successful.

More mindful of the family needs: A woman is often the most effective glue in a family (nuclear or joint). She understands the needs of the family members, responds to them accordingly and is the common ground for voicing the aspirations of every participant in the family structure. Women are often the fulcrum of nearly all activities happening in a family. Equipped with that information, she is best suited to knit it in a financial plan when it is being woven with the able guidance of a financial planner.

Due to the above mentioned facts, in my first financial planning meeting itself, with the stakeholders, I insist on the women's attendance and participation. And, more often than not the male counterpart agrees. By pushing boundaries and nudging them to engage their better halves, I have seen a much higher success rate towards the execution of recommendations of the plan such as, prepayment of home loan, cutting down on credit card usage, taking higher risk on investments to meet the goal amount, creating an emergency fund, prioritising retirement over a daughter's marriage, nominations for all financial accounts (bank accounts, investments, insurance policies, demat) etc.

The author is a certified financial planner, founder partner of Srujan Financial Advisers LLP and author of 'Why Greed is Great'